The Online Guide to Traditional
Games

The Alquerque Family

Draughts is a very ancient game indeed, the origins of which, like
Chess, aren't completely clear. However, early forms of Alquerque,
its venerable ancestor, have been found in Egypt dating at least
as early as 600BC. Alquerque boards can be seen carved into the
stone slabs which form the roof of the great temple at Kurna, Egypt,
which was built in 1400BC (of course, they might have been carved
at any point since). The game of Alquerque was played like Draughts
on a 5 x 5 point board with the pieces starting in a non-symmetrical
pattern. The game clearly had staying power - it is mentioned under
the name of Quirkat in the Arabic work Kitab-al Aghani, the author
of which died in 976 AD. Quirkat was first brought to Europe by
the Moors during their invasion of Spain. It was recorded as Alquerque
(Spanish form of El-Quirkat) in the Alfonso X Manuscript which was
written between 1251 - 1282 at the command of Alfonso X, King of
Leon and Castile.

The image shows a modern commercial version of the game owned
by the author.

The Madagascan game of Fanorona is a descendant of Alquerque. It
seems to have been invented around 1680 AD and is still played today.

Board shown is a modern German version from the author's collection.

Sometime later, around 1100, possibly in the South
of France, somebody decided to play Alquerque on a Chess board instead
of the standard Alquerque board. The game was played with 12 pieces on
each side and was called Fierges or Ferses at first although this changed
to Dames later. The game did not force a player to take enemy pieces when
the opportunity presented itself.

The compulsory rule forcing a player to take whenever possible was
introduced in France around 1535, the resulting new game being called
Jeu Force. At this point the old game without huffing became known
as Le Jeu Plaisant De Dames or Plaisant for short. The first book
written on the game was published in Valencia, Spain in 1547 and now
resides in the Royal Library of Madrid. Jeu Force is the game played
in England today under the name of Draughts and the game was taken
to America and called Checkers. The first book in English about it
was written in 1756 by William Payne, a mathematician from London.

The board to the left was made around the turn of the century.
It is of a common design being able to fold in half to form a box
containing the the pieces, when the board is stored. An English
Draughts board is on the outside and a Backgammon board is marqueted
within. From the author's parent's collection.

Most
of the rest of Western Europe took to playing a different development
of Le Jeu Plaisant De Dames which appeared in Paris in 1727 and which
is now the internationally recognised game of Polish Draughts or Continental
Draughts. This game is superior in complexity to English draughts by virtue
of the fact that it is played on a board ten squares by ten squares and
that capturing moves have an extended scope. It isn't believed to
have been invented in Poland at all and they apparently know it as 'French
Draughts' there! Polish Draughts was probably the name given in
order to make it sound slightly different to West European ears in the
same way as for Chinese Checkers and Russian
Billiards.

Left: The Mongolian team International Draughts practicing while they
wait at the 4th Mind Sports Olympiad at Alexandra Palace, London, August,
2000.

Some areas of South East Asia go one better and play on a board of twelve
by twelve squares and 24 pieces each side. The Canadian Draughts
variant is also played upon a board this size.

Above is a typical Sri Lankan board with the requisite
144 squares

And here are a couple of Sri Lankans playing on
a home made board in Anuradhapura. They have found some light
and dark stones to use as pieces.